


Hopelessly Devoted (To You)

by ellacj



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/F, Heavy Drinking, mentioned swan queen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-04-08
Packaged: 2018-03-21 20:19:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3703957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellacj/pseuds/ellacj
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In Ursula's absence, gin - and surprisingly, Regina Mills - have become Cruella's only comfort.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hopelessly Devoted (To You)

**Author's Note:**

> A oneshot that is not only aside from the 52 Weeks challenge, but doesn't even feature Swan Queen as the main pairing. Crazy, right??
> 
> Title taken from Grease, the greatest musical of my experience.

It’s just one more glass.

At least, that’s what she tells herself, mesmerized by the gin filling the glass much more than is proper. It’s been a week since Ursula went off to the ocean, leaving Cruella behind to pick up the pieces of her heart. One week. Seven days.

She’s gotten over marriages in less time.

She takes a sip, a bitter smile crossing her lips as memories overtake her. Ursula standing indignant in Maleficent’s castle, Ursula drawing Cruella close to her with a gentle grip, Ursula smiling and kissing her even while she cries. Cruella herself is tearing up at the images. She dabs gently at the corners of her eye, not wanting to smudge the makeup she so painstakingly applied that morning, and glances out the window.

Ursula used to sit by that tiny window in the B&B and just stare outside. She’d talk about how she knew her happy ending was out there, how she could feel it on the tip of her tongue but somehow it was just beyond her vision. It was always in these moments that Cruella would smile to herself, think that maybe if Ursula just turned around she’d see exactly what she needed to.

Cruella tilts her head back to take another drink, frowning when the tumbler is again empty already. She stares at the bottom, sees herself through the glass distorted and bent out of shape. And maybe that’s exactly how she feels without Ursula to hold her hand and tell her it’s okay.

Maleficent’s even crueler now that she’s gone, and there’s no one for Cruella to fall back into this time around. This time around, she’s alone.

She supposes Ursula’s happy now, living back in the sea with her father and her songs, has no room for a temporary presence like Cruella in her life anymore. She’s found the happy ending she sought so desperately as to team up with Rumplestiltsken and the dragon and the woman she swore she didn’t love. But here’s the thing – Cruella doesn’t believe her. She never has. Because the way Ursula looked at her… maybe she’s just a narcissist, but there’s no way anyone could fake that kind of emotion.

Cruella sighs. Maybe there is. Maybe Ursula was just that fantastic of an actress. She smiles again, an un-ladylike snort escaping her. Gin and desperation. Oh, how right Rumple was. She stands up, picks up her bottle, exits the room in a flurry of fur coats and stumbling steps. She can’t be in this room anymore; not now. Not tonight. She’s not really sure where she intends to go, but it’s probably symbolic that she ends up on the beach where the ocean laps on the shore.

“I’m back,” she calls. Because here she is again staring out at the waves where Ursula departed, just as she has been every night since, some small part of her still believing that Ursula might walk out of the water right now and let Cruella fall into her arms. Unfortunately, the ocean offers her the same thing tonight as it always does.

Cruella sighs. “I guess you really aren’t coming back, then.” She nods slowly, clutching her gin close to her body and uncapping it to drink directly out of the bottle. “Well, fine. We don’t need you. I don’t need you.” Her voice cracks, and her eyes are moistening again and she wants to scream, wants to slap herself in the face for being so goddamn _weak_.

“Rough night?” The voice comes from behind her, and when Cruella turns around there’s Regina standing there, arms folded over her chest and eyebrows raises.

“What are you doing here?” Cruella narrows her eyes. Even as inebriated as she is, her mind is still sharp enough not to trust Regina.

Regina shrugs, drawing her jacket around her against the cool sea breeze. “I come out here to think sometimes. And yourself?”

Cruella blinks a few times at how forthcoming Regina is tonight. She’s always so vague; always skirts around her feelings and intentions with metaphors and answering questions with questions.

“You miss Ursula.” Regina tilts her head, regarding Cruella with a curious expression. “Am I right?”

The _nerve_ of her, assuming as though she knows the first thing about Cruella’s relationship with Ursula. She straightens slightly. “Are you under the impression that we’re _friends_?” she snarls.

Regina shakes her head calmly. The wind picks up, blowing her hair in all different directions, and yet she stands still and simply stares at Cruella with a neutral face given away by her dark eyes. “Of course not. I think we’ve been through similar things. I think we might be able to understand each other.”

“Please. We’re nothing alike.” Cruella turns away. She uncaps her bottle of gin and takes another swig, gazing out at the waves. “You know nothing of what I’ve lost.”

“Emma left once.”

Cruella frowns. “What?”

“Emma left Storybrooke.” Regina pauses, turning to face Cruella with a sad smile. “She and Henry both. It was the year when the rest of us returned to the Enchanted Forest.” She shrugs. “I might know a bit more than you think.”

She doesn’t mean to, she swears she doesn’t, but before she can turn and leave Cruella finds herself taking a step closer and feels her lips parting in a question. “How did you get through it?”

Regina smiles softly. She reaches out, fingertips just brushing Cruella’s arm. “I let other people take care of me.” At the curl of Cruella’s lip, she shakes her head. “No, maybe that was the wrong word. I let them be there for me. I wasn’t alone.” She centers her grip on Cruella’s arm and squeezes gently. “You don’t have to be alone either.”

“If this is some ploy to get me to abandon Gold and Maleficent-”

“It isn’t.” Regina sighs. “I’m not the Evil Queen I used to be, and a lot of that is due to the people around me. The ones I loved.” She smiles. “You can have that too, you know. It’s much more satisfying than whatever revenge you’re working toward.”

Cruella sighs. She glances away to stare at the ground just to her right. “There was only one person in all the realms who’s ever loved me,” she says, barely audible. Lifting her head, her gaze focuses in on the empty waves just off the shore. It doesn’t need to be said; they both know exactly what it is she can’t say. _She’s gone_.

“If she truly loves you – which I have no doubt that she does – she’ll come back,” Regina promises.

“Why are you even still here?” Cruella asks, then winces slightly. That came out much more harshly than intended. “I mean – why are you helping me?”

Regina shrugs. “It’s like I said before. We’re more alike than you think. Besides,” she adds, an easy grin spreading across her face. “I’m trying this new thing where I don’t terrorize people.” She glances behind her, shoving her hands in her pockets and hunching her shoulders against the cold. “I should get back home before Henry realizes he has the house to himself.” She smiles to herself, like there’s some joke that only she understands and Cruella finds herself desperately wanting to understand.

“Wait,” Cruella calls as Regina turns to go. “You – You’re really happy, then? With your family?”

Slowly, Regina nods, and the most genuine smile Cruella’s ever seen adorns her face, eyes lighting up and cheeks coloring slightly. “I’m happier than I ever thought possible.” She meets Cruella’s eye and nods once more. “She’ll come back.” And then she’s gone, as suddenly as she came, leaving Cruella to ponder their conversation alone.

She turns her attention back to the ocean, opening her mouth to murmur something she hopes Ursula hears. “She said you’d come back.” She kicks some sand from beneath her feet. “So where are you?” Her voice echoes in a shout much louder than she intended, and she drops to her knees in the sand, her fingers moving to massage the sides of her head and tangle in her hair. “I miss you,” she rasps.

She’s not really sure what happens next; all she knows is that one moment she’s kneeling on the beach with waves soaking her pants and tears soaking her face, and the next she’s wrapped in a warm embrace with brown hair falling in her face and gentle arms encircling her waist.

“I missed you, too,” a soft voice murmurs in her ear and it’s Ursula and she’s here, she’s back in Storybrooke, with arms around Cruella and pressing kisses all over her skin exactly like Cruella had imagined for the past seven days.

Cruella looks up to meet Ursula’s eye. “You left.” Her voice is hoarse, but she doesn’t stop, won’t stop until everything’s out. “I thought you were never coming back for me.”

Ursula smiles with tears in her eyes. “I wanted my singing voice back so I could make people happy. But when I got home, I wasn’t making anyone happy who truly mattered.” She pulls Cruella to her feet, tugging her close and placing her hands on either side of her slim waist.

“And who’s that?” Cruella’s voice is breathy now; her heart racing with Ursula’s proximity to her face and the way her eyes keep flickering down between her lips and her eyes.

“It’s you and me, Cru. Just like it’s always been.” She smiles, and then they’re kissing, and Ursula’s lips taste like salt and regret and relief and that four-dollar strawberry lip gloss Cruella’s learned to love on her.

When they finally break, Cruella’s smiling and her makeup is smudged but she can’t quite bring herself to care. “So I spoke with Regina tonight,” she says softly.

“Oh? What did she say?”

“She mostly talked about her family. And I think…” she sighs, glancing away before pulling herself up to meet Ursula’s eyes again. “I don’t want to find the author. I just want to have someone who loves me.”

Ursula grins. She squeezes Cruella’s elbow and plants a gentle kiss to her forehead. “Well you’ve already got that, silly.”

Cruella’s heart soars, and she leans forward to press her forehead against Ursula’s, letting her eyes fall shut with a half-smile. “Yes, I suppose I do.”

And just like that, Cruella thinks she may have captured that happy ending Ursula thought was so elusive; right here, standing on a beach in Maine, hand-in-hand in the cold. And maybe the simplicity of it all is what makes it so beautiful. And how ironic, that a mermaid-turned-sea-witch and a puppy-killing socialite can have something so sheerly humble, and yet here they are. Somehow, they’ve managed to make it this far.

And frankly, Cruella can’t wait to see what comes next.


End file.
